Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Shugary Sweets

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough July 26, 2025 from Shugary Sweets 

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Continue heating for about 5 minutes, swirling the pan gently to see the butter browning without stirring. The butter will begin to foam and stop bubbling. Remove from heat when you see browned bits in the pan. Let cool for at least 10 minutes.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together browned butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat for about 2 minutes until well combined. 
3. Add vanilla and eggs, beating until just combined.
4. Add flour, salt and baking soda, mixing on low speed until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chunks until evenly disbursed.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-sized dough balls, cover and chill for at least an hour or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from heat and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

One of the small silver linings in all the authoritarian and fascist madness going on around the United States is you find out who aligns with your values and who doesn't. Who you want to support and who you don't. I was grateful early on that one of the artists I've loved for many years, Mary Engelbreit, is one such person and company. I've cross stitched her designs for more than a couple of decades, I've bought her desk calendar for years as it's my favorite and so on with her address labels, stickers, stationery and mugs. I've always been mindful of exercising whatever economic privilege I have to "vote" with my dollars, even more so in the past year. I continue to do so now more than ever. 

Another person who early on used her platform to unequivocally state her support for democracy and against fascist atrocities is Aimee Shugarman of Shugary Sweets. I've made recipes from her blog on and off over the years and they're fantastic recipes. But even more than that, I appreciate her using her privilege and her far-greater-reach to stand up for what's right.

When I say great recipes, you can add this one. It's everything a chocolate chip cookie recipe should be: crisp edges, chewy middles, caramelized brown sugar flavor serving as the perfect backdrop for those melt-y chocolate chunks. Okay, that was an awkward pivot but I'm still having a hard time writing these posts, especially after the kidnapping of 5-year-old Liam Ramos, the murders of Keith Porter, Renee Good, Alex Pretti and so many others we don't hear about. All by a government agency funded by our tax dollars and terrorizing people like me who now "carry my papers" to prove my US citizenship.

I'm still trying to find my balance between rocking back and forth in the fetal position weeping at what the US has become and saying "hey, enjoy this cookie". As I wrote in a response to someone who commented on one of my posts, it's a struggle to find the joy and not simultaneously feel the guilt in finding joy in something so small when other people's lives have been so torn apart. But at the same time, what fascism and dictators want is for people to feel despair, cynicism, surrender and to not find joy in anything. Part of resisting is not giving them what they want. Actually, that's all of resisting. 

So while it might seem insignificant to find pleasure in a warm chocolate chip cookie ten minutes out of the oven, use that respite to rest, to keep your capacity to feel joy, to use it as fuel for that resistance and to know your ability to feel happiness in even the small things is exactly what you don't want to lose or give away to those who would gladly take it. Use it for the hope that one day we can all go back to just talking about cookies because the biggest thing on our minds is how long to bake them and whether those calories are really worth it or not.